Shadows
by shire-perian
Summary: Frodo is supposed to learn something tonight.


**Shadows**

Summary: Frodo is supposed to learn something tonight.

AN: My greatest thanks to Angharad for her willingness to beta and for her … sweetness!

_"… and the elf queen called her youngest son…"_

Lids slowly drooped over drowsy eyes. Primula peeped over the opened book in her hands toward the diminutive figure wrapped warmly in a blanket in the bed. She deliberately softened her voice. Those half-closed eyes opened all at once, piercing Primula's own. There was no sign of the previous drowsiness.

Primula sighed quietly.

"Yes, Mama?" Frodo demanded. "What did the elf-queen give the prince? What happened before she bade her son farewell?"

Primula could never hold her dismay toward her only son for long. A smile broke out on her face.

"I thought you were sleeping, Frodo," her voice was soft as she ruffled the small lock of hair on wee Frodo's brow . Her other hand tried, unobtrusively, to put the storybook onto the table. Frodo giggled a little, tossing his head sideways to avoid his mother's gentle attack, and cleverly caught the book before it fell on to the table.

"Please, Mama," he pleaded. "Read me some more."

Primula pinched his cheek playfully.

"Frodo dear. It's way past your bedtime. You've been dozing off. Don't think I didn't notice."

"I've not!" Frodo pouted stubbornly. He let go of the book and it landed with a quiet thud on the table. Frodo pulled his blanket up to his chin. "Then I'm sleeping now."

Primula chuckled to see the sulking lad.

"That's what you should've done earlier, little Baggins." She tapped the tip of Frodo's nose with her finger. Frodo's eyes widened, so surprised to see that his mother actually listened to his words. He reached for her hand and clasped it tightly with both of his own.

"No, no, Mama! Please stay, all right? I really want to know how the story ends." It was a difficult choice for Primula to make between giving in to the plea – accompanied by those beseeching eyes– and having Frodo sleep. It was a choice she should have made many moments ago. Primula knew she had to be stricter with Frodo – and that turned out to be the hardest thing all.

Primula drew her hand gently from Frodo's grasp and tucked his small hands into the sheet. She gave the folds of the blanket upon Frodo's chest several pats, stooping to lay a goodnight kiss on her child's forehead.

"I'm sorry, sweetling, but you should sleep now. The elf-queen and the prince can wait 'til tomorrow." She brushed Frodo's hair to the back, silently wondering at the change in Frodo's demeanor. He lay so still and his face lost all expression.

"Frodo?" Primula called softly, more to herself than to her son. Yet she eventually chose to dismiss her qualms, leaning to put out the candle, and started towards the door. Before shutting it quietly,  
she whispered:

"Good night, Frodo."

# -- # -- #

Dark. So dark.

Then, shadows started to make their presence known once Frodo's eyes got accustomed to the gloom. Frodo squeezed his eyelids tightly shut, trying to reason with himself that there should be naught hiding in the corners of his room, behind the low drawers, above the window sill. Nothing, not even the shadows; for there was only the slightest flicker of light coming from small torches outside into the room. There should be no creeping shadows.

Yet Frodo could not force himself to think so calmly. His heart went pitter patter, hands gripping the sheet fast until his knuckles turned white. Those shadows in Frodo's mind, initially unmoving, began to drift menacingly toward him. Frodo kept his eyes shut, never voluntarily offering to open them, yet he knew they were approaching, threatening to engulf his frame, clutching him with their dark, clammy fingers.

This was the second time he'd had to endure all of this. He wondered himself how he survived that first night, and, at the memory of how his breaths turned raspy and rapid, his throat closed, and he was unable to surrender to slumber until the dawn came.

There were sounds now, hitching and grunting, and Frodo's nerves sharpened in a panic before he realized that the hitches came from the back of his own throat.

Yet the grunts remained…

And that did not come from him.

Frodo turned into a pathetic, shivering little bundle, jerking his heels under the sheet into the mattress as though by doing that he could kick away the monsters and the groaning sounds that were haunting him. He bit his lower lip hard to keep him from crying. He should not scream. No… No… His effort ended in stifled sobs instead – and trickles of tears ran down his cheeks.

Mama…

"Frodo?"

A tap on his shoulder alarmed Frodo. His eyes flew open and he threw himself into his mother's arms.

"Mama, Mama," sobbed the child. "Can I sleep with you tonight? Please?"

Primula, sitting on the edge of Frodo's bed, laid Frodo down and smoothed the sweat-drenched curls from his pallid features. She had sensed the discomfort ever since she was about to leave the room and, later on, she had decided to go back when suspicious, weeping sound reached her ears. Primula's heart had skipped a beat to see Frodo's shaking body after she had lit the candle.

A small voice and a tug at the sleeve of her nightgown brought Primula out of her musing.

"Don't leave, Mama."

Primula smiled faintly at Frodo. It was an inevitable matter – leaving Frodo to sleep by himself as the lad grew older. Frodo could not stay the night with his parents for ever. He should learn to face whatever it was that had unnerved him just now. Frodo had to learn to face those demons and fight them.

However, maybe the lad should not have to do it all tonight. Primula scooped up Frodo's body and folded her arms around it, feeling the quivers slowly leaving Frodo.

"Hush, Frodo. I won't leave you tonight. You may choose whether you want to sleep here with me or to be with me and your Papa in our room as usual."

Frodo pulled back and gazed at his mother with gratitude, the remains of his tears brimming in his eyes.

"May I--" his voice caught. "Oh, thank you, Mama!"

Primula slowly rocked the small thing that had resumed its position upon her chest. Yes, the _how to be an independent child_ lesson was dismissed for tonight.

"Frodo," called Primula softly in his ear. "Is this why you kept asking me to continue reading the story? So I won't leave you alone?"

Frodo smiled shyly. A rhetorical question; both Primula and her son knew that.

End


End file.
